A study of the effect of addition of copper compounds to soils on the metabolism of nitrogen

Imperial Users onl

Taking Shari\u27a Seriously. Book Review Of: The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State. Noah Feldman

Book review: The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State. Noah Feldman. Princeton University Press. 2008. Pp. 189. Reviewed by: Asifa Quraish

Computer Security Documentation for a Non-Technical Audience

This research project investigates the development of computer security documentation. Computer security includes the protection of hardware, software, and/or digital information from theft and/or damage, along with preventing disruption or misdirection of the services a computer may provide.The scope of the research was to develop a document detailing the basic fundamental concepts of computer security that individuals of all backgrounds can use without requiring prerequisite knowledge of computer security. The core concepts of the document encompass phishing, social engineering, password security, trusted/untrusted networks, viruses, malware, and antivirus software. Both technical and non-technical individuals can utilize the document to learn how to be safe online and make informed decisions on the internet. The evaluation of the efficacy of the document relies on two surveys. The methodology involved participants taking a pre-survey before reading the document. Followed by reading the developed document and afterward taking a post-survey. The results of the first survey, in comparison to the second survey, are used to determine the efficacy. The participants were selected on a voluntary basis, with the focus being on non-technical individuals of varying backgrounds.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2018/1000/thumbnail.jp

Performance Analysis of Tracking on Mobile Devices using Local Binary Descriptors

With the growing ubiquity of mobile devices, users are turning to their smartphones and tablets to perform more complex tasks than ever before. Performing computer vision tasks on mobile devices must be done despite the constraints on CPU performance, memory, and power consumption. One such task for mobile devices involves object tracking, an important area of computer vision. The computational complexity of tracking algorithms makes them ideal candidates for optimization on mobile platforms. This thesis presents a mobile implementation for real time object tracking. Currently few tracking approaches take into consideration the resource constraints on mobile devices. Optimizing performance for mobile devices can result in better and more efficient tracking approaches for mobile applications such as augmented reality. These performance benefits aim to increase the frame rate at which an object is tracked and reduce power consumption during tracking. For this thesis, we utilize binary descriptors, such as Binary Robust Independent Elementary Features (BRIEF), Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB), Binary Robust Invariant Scalable Keypoints (BRISK), and Fast Retina Keypoint (FREAK). The tracking performance of these descriptors is benchmarked on mobile devices. We consider an object tracking approach based on a dictionary of templates that involves generating keypoints of a detected object and candidate regions in subsequent frames. Descriptor matching, between candidate regions in a new frame and a dictionary of templates, identifies the location of the tracked object. These comparisons are often computationally intensive and require a great deal of memory and processing time. Google\u27s Android operating system is used to implement the tracking application on a Samsung Galaxy series phone and tablet. Control of the Android camera is largely done through OpenCV\u27s Android SDK. Power consumption is measured using the PowerTutor Android application. Other performance characteristics, such as processing time, are gathered using the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS) tool included in the Android SDK. These metrics are used to evaluate the tracker\u27s performance on mobile devices

Assessing the Relevancy and Efficacy of the United Nations Convention against Corruption: A Comparative Analysis

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (adopted in 2003) is the first global in-depth treaty on corruption. This work attempts to assess its significance by analyzing its provisions, in particular, those concerning the areas of prevention, criminalization, and asset recovery. It then seeks to assess its relevancy and effectiveness by giving an overview of the UNCAC’s main compliance challenges, as well as other existing initiatives that tackle corruption. Two types of compliance challenges are suggested throughout this work: direct and indirect compliance challenges. Among direct compliance challenges are the treaty’s language, the existence of sanctions, and its monitoring mechanism. Indirect compliance challenges on the other hand include good governance and prosecution difficulties. Although the UNCAC innovates in many respects, it is argued that it also suffers from weaknesses that cannot be overlooked, preventing it from having a real impact on States’ behavior